solid chain selection

[mirek1017]

Hello All 

there is some option on mastercam solid chain for select these chains for make chamfer like one line or I need to create curve on it and join them ?

 

[Jobnt]

You have to create a curve/line along them and chain that. 

[mirek1017]

ok .thats what I thought 

[crazy^millman]

2 hours ago, mirek1017 said:

Hello All 

there is some option on mastercam solid chain for select these chains for make chamfer like one line or I need to create curve on it and join them ?

 

Make a copy of the solid and use Model prep to remove the holes is another option.

[byte]

3 hours ago, mirek1017 said:

Hello All 

there is some option on mastercam solid chain for select these chains for make chamfer like one line or I need to create curve on it and join them ?

 

That's what chaining tolerance is about, if your tolerance is greater than the gap size it will work

[crazy^millman]

5 minutes ago, byte said:

That's what chaining tolerance is about, if your tolerance is greater than the gap size it will work

Good thinking out of the box.

[mirek1017]

Thank you ,the best mastercam web !!!!!

the best people !!!!

[volitan71]

I was able to do it by going into Solid Selection instead of using Wireframe, and using edges. Unless I'm misunderstanding what they want to do?

 

Oh ok, "one line" I see. No, this won't do that, you'd have to select each one individually.

[Jobnt]

44 minutes ago, volitan71 said:

No, this won't do that, you'd have to select each one individually.

Thee Petee came up with a really good idea (but don't tell him it was a good idea, it will go to his head and we won't be able to live with him after that)...

4 hours ago, byte said:

That's what chaining tolerance is about, if your tolerance is greater than the gap size it will work

Set the chaining tolerance to bigger than the biggest gap and it should work. 

[byte]

1 hour ago, Jobnt said:

Thee Petee came up with a really good idea (but don't tell him it was a good idea, it will go to his head and we won't be able to live with him after that)...

Set the chaining tolerance to bigger than the biggest gap and it should work. 

Yes, the chain tolerance must be larger than the largest gap, 

[Thad]

On 5/1/2023 at 11:58 AM, byte said:

That's what chaining tolerance is about, if your tolerance is greater than the gap size it will work

 

If that's the case, select the first and last edge (no need to select the middle two) and set the tolerance even bigger. 

[neurosis]

I remember back in earlier versions of the software, loosening the chaining tolerance would, at times, give really bad results.

Has it gotten better/more accurate with age?  Better with solid chains than wireframe?

I haven't tried it since pre X9.

[Thad]

3 minutes ago, neurosis said:

I remember back in earlier versions of the software, loosening the chaining tolerance would, at times, give really bad results.

Has it gotten better/more accurate with age?  Better with solid chains than wireframe?

I haven't tried it since pre X9.

Good point, Neuro. I'm not sure if it has improved, but maybe the safer bet is to just select the first line and use Extend in the lead in/out settings to get the tool to cut everything.

[neurosis]

8 minutes ago, Thad said:

Good point, Neuro. I'm not sure if it has improved, but maybe the safer bet is to just select the first line and use Extend in the lead in/out settings to get the tool to cut everything.

 

I got bit on this one time so I get a little apprehensive cutting corners now.  

If it does work better I would probably give it another shot.  On simple geometry anyway.

[byte]

35 minutes ago, neurosis said:

I remember back in earlier versions of the software, loosening the chaining tolerance would, at times, give really bad results.

Has it gotten better/more accurate with age?  Better with solid chains than wireframe?

I haven't tried it since pre X9.

The chaining tolerance of the operation must be larger than the gap size, however you want not want your global chaining tolerance to be large as this will cause you to have to choose branches  if there are multiple potential entities withing the tolerance size,  I can't speak to the pre-x9 days ofc..

 

A chain is just a list of entities in the order they were saved in, as long as the chain tol is more than the largest gap, it will work fine,

Solid chaining was more buggy in the past,  it has gotten a lot better for sure, it's my go to a lot of the time to have smaller files with less objects

Just to avoid confusion, the value we are changing here is the operations chaining tolerance, not the global tolerance

[neurosis]

14 minutes ago, byte said:

The chaining tolerance of the operation must be larger than the gap size, however you want not want your global chaining tolerance to be large as this will cause you to have to choose branches  if there are multiple potential entities withing the tolerance size,  I can't speak to the pre-x9 days ofc..

I'm not talking about issues in the chaining.  It would give bad results in tool path.  Even if the chain would intersect, the path would wonder outside of the line.  It didn't work at all if you tried it with arcs. 

I'll play with it when I get some free time and see if It looks better. If it results in wonky path I'll post the results. 

If it *does* work better that's awesome.  It would be a definite time saver. The system I used prior to Mastercam would allow you to use any geometry as long as it intersected. It didn't even have to be on the same plane or intersect at end points. It was nice.

[byte]

2 minutes ago, neurosis said:

The system I used prior to Mastercam would allow you to use any geometry as long as it intersected. It didn't even have to be on the same plane or intersect at end points. It was nice.

SOLIDCAM right?

[neurosis]

9 minutes ago, byte said:

SOLIDCAM right?

 

You may be thinking of TopSolid?  I've never used SolidCam.

The system I'm talking about is Cimatron.  The old Dos versions of Cimatron. I don't have any experience with Cimatron E or newer.

[byte]

5 minutes ago, neurosis said:

 

You may be thinking of TopSolid?  I've never used SolidCam.

The system I'm talking about is Cimatron.  The old Dos versions of Cimatron. I don't have any experience with Cimatron E or newer.

yes, your right, i was thinking of topsolid

[Jobnt]

8 minutes ago, neurosis said:

The system I'm talking about is Cimatron

Whew! What a program.

I used it many years ago to make molds and 'trodes. Super powerful but I hated the way it locked you into areas of the interface. 

[byte]

19 minutes ago, neurosis said:

I'm not talking about issues in the chaining.  It would give bad results in tool path.  Even if the chain would intersect, the path would wonder outside of the line.  It didn't work at all if you tried it with arcs. 

I'll play with it when I get some free time and see if It looks better. If it results in wonky path I'll post the results. 

If it *does* work better that's awesome.  It would be a definite time saver. The system I used prior to Mastercam would allow you to use any geometry as long as it intersected. It didn't even have to be on the same plane or intersect at end points. It was nice.

So, it depends on the path, for example with a dynamic contour its very nice

where as the same chain with a regular contour is like this 

stuff with a pocket boundary will probably work well too

dynamic mill is nice too

[neurosis]

5 minutes ago, Jobnt said:

Whew! What a program.

I used it many years ago to make molds and 'trodes. Super powerful but I hated the way it locked you into areas of the interface. 

When I first started working at my current shop they had two Apollo work stations set up with Cimatron on them.  We were almost exclusively a mold shop. 

There are a lot of things I still miss about that software.

[byte]

file

Solid Chains.mcam

[Newbeeee™]

4 hours ago, byte said:

So, it depends on the path, for example with a dynamic contour its very nice

where as the same chain with a regular contour is like this 

stuff with a pocket boundary will probably work well too

dynamic mill is nice too

Every day's a school day!

Chapeau, laddo!!!!

[AHarrison1]

4 hours ago, neurosis said:

When I first started working at my current shop they had two Apollo work stations set up with Cimatron on them.  We were almost exclusively a mold shop. 

There are a lot of things I still miss about that software.

Yep, like the triple middle mouse click to exit anything... or having to have a 3 button mouse.